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Social Media and our business!

So I am really excited to bring this topic to the forum and hear what you all think!
Social Media and building awareness about your transportation company by having a active social media campaign FB,Twitter,Instagram,Blog,email blasts ect. Questions that occur how do you put a value to social media other than equating to sales?! And If it is all sales how do you effectively track it?
Please comments, concerns, thoughts, actions.... love to hear it!

I'm no expert on social media but I really don't think its worth putting too much effort into for our business. I think the effort is better spent on actual websites. I track every booking that I get by source and I can count on both hands how many bookings I had because of social media. I would love to see someone who is successful with social media and books many trips from it who can actually track the sources 100% and isn't just guessing.

I can directly attribute 4 weddings booked last year at a total value of around $3k to Facebook and a paid ad campaign that I launched at a total cost of $120 over 2 months.

Facebook has brought me on average, 1 paying client per 100 likes.

If you aren't building a brand and using it as a piece of a larger cohesive marketing strategy, it will not have much of an effect. A poorly run social media campaign will seriously hurt your business. Amateur looking photos, inappropriate comments, and poor grammer and spelling will really make a business look unprofessional and not trustworthy. Facebook will give a prospective client a feel for what your business stands for. It can also show a relationship between your business and other businesses that a potential client uses and trusts, which may help sway them to use your services.

I split off my late model cars from my vintage cars and created a new brand for them because the marketing has to be very different for the two services. I launched a Facebook campaign for Armitage Sedan & SUV on April 2nd and within a week I had booked an airport transfer and a 3 hour charter with the stretched limo that I can directly attribute to Facebook. I only have 50 likes and really 1/2 of those are real life friends (both bookings were new clients).

Effective marketing has to be a complete package. Someone sees you on someone's Facebook page, they see you as a sponsor at a local event, they see your company mentioned in the newspaper, they see your company in the search results on Google, etc. Individually, each is a minor occurrence and might not trigger a response. Eventually, if they see you enough times, they will think of you when they need service. But the key is to expose your business to them. I think the statistic is that someone needs to see your brand 7 times before they even really notice it and will think of it when they need your product or service. That doesn't happen overnight and it doesn't happen using only one form of media.

If you're going to do the social media thing effectively, you need someway to be able to post photos from your events on almost a daily basis. The whole value of social media is that there's constantly new content that people want to "follow."

For example, there's a high-end car detail shop that somehow I am following on Facebook, and they are daily posting photos of cool cars being worked on in their shop. It makes me want to pay them to polish my cars (but I prefer to pay myself that money since I have all the tools). Very effective. It builds trust that they know what their doing.

Can you really generate that kind of content in the limo biz? Do the customers want to have their photos on the site, or will they even allow it? Maybe you can give them a discount or extra perk if they allow it?

Social media is the greatest tool for business. It gives consumer an inside look at you and your business and it makes it so easy for potential clients to contact you. It doesn't happen overnight. It takes time before you see any return. I took over our Facebook page about 3 years ago. At first I thought what a waste of time. What we noticed is as you build a following people respond to what you are doing and they have a sense that they already know you before they even call you. This gives people a sense of comfort right away. When we bought our black 100" limo 2 years ago. We posted the progress of all the repairs, we kinda made a documentary for it on Facebook. Well the same week we put it in to service a guy called and said ( I watched everyday on Facebook and saw all the work that was done. I would like to book that limo for my wife's 50th birthday ! ) How cool is that. It's hard to put a number on how many bookings comes from facebook but if you want to know , is it worth the time ?? Hell yeah it is ! But don't fill your page with ads. Then people will ignore you. Some ads are ok but keep it interesting. Give people a reason to read your posts. Kinda give your followers a look in to our world.

How do you all feel about PHONE BOOK ads? My husband has always felt that "old people still use phone books" but with the internet and google, who needs them now? I think we should pare back the books and go SEO. What are you all doing?

I don't think you have to post everyday to be effective. I'd say a posting once a week with a good photo is about right. And for those that don't know, Facebook business pages status' only show up in about 10% of your followers feeds unless you pay for advertising, which can be as low as $5 to reach about 1k people.

The best use of Facebook is used to build brand awareness. I don't think it's a good venue for posting nonstop deals and calls to action. Twitter is a better venue to build an audience that is interested in last minute deals or things like that. Tumblr is a good venue to publish a blog about your company and give your business some history to it that people can look at. Use YouTube to introduce you, your company, and your services to potential clients.

I think Elegant Limos shored it up a really excellent example of how to effectively use Facebook in our industry. It showed the care he took in getting a vehicle in top shape before it was in service. It showed that he respects his clients and wants to deliver an excellent service experience to them. It helped tell the story of his business and show that there's a man who really cares behind it. No in your face advertising. Just put it out there. This is who we are and what we're about. We'll be here when you need us. Then leave it at that.

Andrew, you really have this figured out. Our business is not generally one that is an impulse buy. Nobody generally sees/hears a commercial for limousine service and say's, "Oh, let me drop $400 tonight" like a commercial for a Big Mac could influence you to buy one if you see it on a billboard and then pass a McDonald's a mile later and happen to be hungry. So, you have to market, market, market so when someone has a need for your services and they Google "limousine service in ____" and see your name, they feel like they "know you" just like the above mentioned detail shop.

On the other hand, social media does help sell other things. We run wine tours, casino trips, NASCAR race trips, beach trips, amusement park trips, all sold by the seat. We advertise these only on Facebook. It typically takes 72 hours to fill up a bus from the time we place the trip on our Facebook page.

In the summer, when our business gets slow, we have the Friday afternoon Facebook special. Usually a ridiculous offer limited to the first two to five responders.

We update our page every single day though an automated posting system. We have nearly 2000 people that "like" our Facebook page.

Hello Everyone,When it comes to social media the buzz is typically around the latest tool available. Most recently business have been exploring how to use Instagram, Pinterest and Vine to reach their customers.But here is something more important to keep in mind. Social media tools may come and go, but the overall best practices and principles remain the same. A successful social media program is based on good planning and smart guidelines.

Hello Everyone,When it comes to social media the buzz is typically around the latest tool available. Most recently business have been exploring how to use Instagram, Pinterest and Vine to reach their customers.But here is something more important to keep in mind. Social media tools may come and go, but the overall best practices and principles remain the same. A successful social media program is based on good planning and smart guidelines.